The majority decision, written by Justice Samuel Alito, held that if Hobby Lobby’s owners believe that the contraceptives at issue cause abortions, the mandate is a burden on their religious beliefs: “[W]e must decide whether the challenged…regulations substantially burden the exercise of religion, and we hold that they do,” Alito wrote. “The owners of the businesses have religious objections to abortion, and according to their religious beliefs the four contraceptive methods at issue are abortifacients.”

Hobby Lobby, a Christian-owned craft supply chain store with nearly 575 stores and 30,000 employees, challenged the contraception mandate on the grounds that it violates their religious freedom by requiring them to pay for methods of contraception they find morally objectionable.

The store owners argued that some forms of birth control -- emergency contraception and intrauterine devices -- are forms of abortion because they could prevent a fertilized egg from implanting in the uterus.

Closely held companies, as the Wall Street Journal has reported, are owned by a relatively small number of investors, typically including their founding families and management. Roughly 90 percent of all companies in the U.S. are closely held, according to a 2000 study by the Copenhagen Business School.